How to Lose Weight by Eating for Enjoyment (It Really is Possible!)

by OneTaste Living Library Jan 5, 2014

In our last article, “Forget the Guilt--Have the Pleasure Instead”, we talked about desire based eating. We shared the tool of keeping a food journal and learning to listen to your body’s communication through sensation. Basically, guilt is attachment to a story, whereas sensation takes you out of the story and into the experience. Now, we want to go one step closer in to the way you experience and how you engage with food.

How often do you sit down and really enjoy your food? Savor every bite, and let your senses soar on the ride of sensations that arise? Roll the different textures and tastes around, discovering something new in each morsel? You can connect to the moment and anchor your awareness to the flavors and textures..

Eating for enjoyment, and allowing yourself to be totally immersed in the experience of feeding oneself is a radical notion in our culture. We’re much more a fast food, on the go, in the car, in front of the tv/computer kind of a crowd. We look at countries like France and Spain with their hours-long meal traditions and think “Pfft, who has time for that?”

It’s so radical, in fact, that it could revolutionize what you eat, how you feel, the way you look, and your body image. All you have to do is one simple thing:

Slow. Down.

Smell your food. Delight in how it looks. Taste every note as it hits your palate. Notice how it feels in your mouth as you chew.

Slowing down enough to feel is a sensuality practice that you can incorporate into every meal. Sensuality, in eating, in fucking, in movement, and in Orgasmic Meditation requires that you let go of speed and drop into your body so that you can feel and capture the messages of your senses.

When you slow down while eating, your experience will naturally change, because you will gravitate toward quality foods and more subtle flavors. Fast foods are designed (well, engineered, really) to taste good and hit the brain’s pleasure centers with the perfect mixture of fat, salt, sugar, and carbs. But that seems to only be true if you scarf it down and eat it as it was intended - fast. And under those conditions, it tastes so good that you can go totally unconscious, and before you know it, the bag of Doritos is gone.

Next time you find yourself grabbing something quick on the go, conduct your own research project. If you find yourself on the mouth end of a Big Mac, try slowing down and really taste it.